User blog:Willbachbakal/(CB1) Hannibal, the Dread Vanguard
Hannibal, the Dread Vanguard is a champion concept made for Concept Battle 1, a custom champion competition organized by Grrrbear26, with each round focusing on a specific feature. In this round, the feature was to have a champion with at least one ability that is affected or restricted by the actions of enemy champions. In line with this challenge, Hannibal is a powerful offensive tank specializing not only in initiating for his team, but also providing additional initiation and mobility for his allies. What he lacks in direct initiation, he more than makes up for in immediate follow-up, as he can supplement his team with enormous amounts of damage and crowd control as he tanks for his allies. He does, however, have several pitfalls: when not riding his trusty warhorse, Strife, Hannibal is extremely slow, and since he has no means of attacking his opponents from large distances he's forced to constantly get within melee range of them. Unlike most tanks, he also lacks an ultimate, and the main asset he brings to his team, Strife, can also be hijacked by his opponents. As an extremely offensively-oriented champion, Hannibal is meant to work very well in all-in comps, and I designed him to be good in both top lane and the jungle, but also as a support, as his team-oriented kit would pair him well with aggressive marksmen. Abilities Hannibal's ultimate, Call Steed, is available at level 1 and cannot be ranked up. Instead, all of his basic abilities can be leveled up to rank 6. Hannibal's steed, Strife, has her own unique ability set that replaces her rider's. All of her abilities are available at level 1 and cannot be ranked up. Hannibal is accompanied by his warhorse, Strife. He and any other champion, ally or enemy, can right-click Strife when near her to mount her, gaining a new set of abilities but losing the ability to attack. Strife remains visible at all times, and will force enemy champions to dismount after 5 seconds. Upon dismounting Strife, no other champion can ride her for another 5 seconds. If Hannibal dies, Strife forces her rider to dismount after up to 5 seconds and returns to the fountain, remaining unusable until Hannibal respawns. |description2= Hannibal stores all incoming damage he takes before reductions are applied, up to an amount equal to . Once that threshold is reached, he initiates a 3-second countdown, at the end of which his armor detonates, dealing of the damage stored as magic damage to all enemies within 500 units, them for seconds and resetting War Engine. |targeting='Strife' is a buff. War Engine is a point-blank area of effect ability. |damagetype=magic |spelleffects=aoe |spellshield=will block War Engine's damage and stun. |additional=Strife is the most unique and volatile part of Hannibal's kit, offering huge mobility and a bit of crowd control to anyone riding her, friend or foe. While Hannibal does have some measure of control over Strife via his ult, using her to roam and initiate leaves her vulnerable to enemy hijacking. On the flipside, it's also a buff Hannibal can grant to anyone on his team, even to champions on the other side of the map. Giving your team's jungler Strife to ride on would give them massively increased roaming and ganking power, for example, even if it comes at a large cost to your own power (unless you're the jungler, in which case you get to benefit from your own roaming strength). Because Strife is a mount available to everyone, it makes little sense for her unique ability set to scale in the same way as traditional abilities, which is why I altered Hannibal's ranking scheme: because his ultimate is essentially Strife, and the active on his ultimate is just there to call her, there's not that much on her that scales enough to warrant ult ranks. Instead, I chose to shove some extra ranks into Hannibal's basic abilities, which would also help pace his power growth better (I feel he needs to have strong abilities at all stages of the game, which five ranks per ability wouldn't quite achieve). To prevent him from having a perfectly smooth power curve, which would be pretty boring, I also added War Engine, which is central to his tanking paradigm: its high damage and crowd control is meant to ensure Hannibal can be a great tank in teamfights, as well as grant him some clearing power, and it also allows him to have sort-of-ultimate-level bursts of power in combat, in compensation for the lack of an ultimate or additional combat abilities (Strife is meant to be great out of combat and for initiating, but isn't something you'll use to actually fight). }} Hannibal's next basic attack marks his target for 4 seconds, causing them to take magic damage over 2 seconds if they are attacked by Hannibal or allied champions. |description2= Execution Mandate resets Hannibal's autoattack timer. |leveling= | }} |cooldown=10 |cost=30 |costtype=Mana }} Strife rears up for seconds before dashing to the target location. |range=700 |static=6 }} | , , , and . ** Execution Mandate does not trigger against structures. |spellshield=will block Execution Mandate. |additional=Execution Mandate is meant to be a trading and clearing tool for Hannibal that eventually scales into a team-wide damage buff against single targets. While this is something that Hannibal can benefit from alone, it's meant to truly shine when Hannibal is with allies, as he can then mark targets for death and cause them to take much more continuous damage. While an effect like this would synergize well with ranged damage-dealers, it would also give Hannibal an incentive to autoattack during fights in order to refresh the DoT. Because Hannibal is a tank less focused on immediate and bursty initiation, and more on massive tanking power over time, he needs to make persistent contributions to teamfights, which this would hopefully achieve. I gave Strife a jump because, aside from the fact that Hannibal himself doesn't have strong gapclosers, Strife is meant to be a champion's means of initiating fights or disengaging them (and occasionally just wall hopping). Strife's main contribution to fights is her ability to punt opponents away (and, with some maneuvering, towards her rider's team), and in order to set that up she would need a gapcloser. }} }} Hannibal stands still and calls to arms for 1 second. During this time, allied champions within 300 units of him can click on him to move to his location and join his raiding party. Afterwards, he and his fellow raiders dash to the target location, enemies they pass through. |description2=During the call to arms, the charge and for 2 seconds afterwards, Hannibal and all allies who joined his charge gain bonus armor and magic resistance. |description3=If the raiding party collides with terrain during their charge, they will stop prematurely. |leveling2= bonus armor)}} bonus magic resistance)}} |range=900 |cooldown= |cost=80 |costtype=Mana }} Strife gains movement speed and leaves a trail behind her that lasts for 3 seconds, granting the same bonus movement speed to the rider's allies while they remain on it. }} | }} Hannibal slams his mace into the ground after a -second delay, dealing magic damage to all enemies in the target 200-unit radius area and them for 2 seconds, increased by 50% against enemies caught by the 75-unit direct impact. |leveling=* | }} * | }} |range=400 |cooldown=6 |cost= |costtype=Mana }} Strife kicks behind her, the first enemy she hits 500 units away. |range=300 |static=6 }} | }} Hannibal calls Strife to his side, causing her to arrive at his location in 1 second, regardless of her position on the map. |description2= Call Steed can only be used if no champion is riding Strife, and is disabled for 10 seconds after a rider dismounts from Strife. |static=1 }} Dismounts from Strife and reverts to the rider's abilities. }} | or he can still provide more than enough tools for his team to succeed. }} }} How do you like him? Does Hannibal fit the challenge criteria well? What do you think of his overall kit? Is there an opportunity I missed, or something that could be improved? Comments and criticism are greatly appreciated! Category:Custom champions